


Two Favors

by S0lstice



Series: Whumptober 2019 [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Blood and Injury, Gen, Hurt Peter Parker, Hurt/Comfort, Irondad, Prompt #8: Stab Wound, Stabbing, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, Whumptober 2019, spiderson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-15
Updated: 2019-10-15
Packaged: 2020-12-17 05:15:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,064
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21048902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/S0lstice/pseuds/S0lstice
Summary: Tony gets a worrying call late at night and Peter is too polite for his own good._________________________________“Okay, well first I was wondering if you could call the police and report a few drug dealers that are webbed up here?”Tony’s smile faded into a confused frown. “And why can’t you do that yourself?”“Well, I’m pretty sure I’m going to pass out soon.”





	Two Favors

**Author's Note:**

> I'm far too slow a writer to keep up with the daily Whumptober schedule (and I seem incapable of writing anything brief), but I'm still planning to go through all the prompts! They will probably be mostly out of order at this point, but I already have two more that are well on their way to being finished. :)

Tony held his head in his hands, papers spread in front of him on the kitchen table and a dull headache pushing insistently at the back of his skull. The words had begun to blur together about a half hour ago but he couldn’t bring himself to stop working. He sighed and flipped back a page to reread it for the third time. 

Quiet footsteps entered the low-lit room and then slim, warm arms slipped around his shoulders from behind. 

“It’s eleven thirty, hun,” Pepper said softly. “You need to rest.”

Tony leaned back with a long exhale and put the Accords down only to pick them back up a few seconds later. “There’s just... _so much_ here that needs to be changed. It’s absurd, some of the stuff they have in here.” 

“I know. And I know you want to propose the amendments as soon as possible, but you can’t run yourself ragged like this.” A lock of strawberry blonde hair fell over his shoulder as she kissed him gently on the cheek. “Don’t drive yourself to exhaustion out of guilt,” she added quietly. 

“I knew it.” Tony plopped the stack of papers down to the table again. “I knew it was dangerous to date someone who knew me so well.” 

He was rewarded with Pepper’s soft laugh before she straightened and moved away. He dragged himself slowly to his feet and was stretching out the cricks in his joints when his watch gave a little trill. 

“Huh,” he said upon seeing a little spider symbol blinking on the watch face. “Kid’s calling from his suit.”

Pepper paused in the doorway, curious. 

“What’s up, kiddo?” 

_“Oh hey, Mr. Stark!”_ Peter greeted.

“Hey yourself. I hope you’re getting ready to turn in, isn’t it getting close to curfew for a school night?”

_“Oh, yeah I guess it is. Huh. But um. Listen, are you busy right now?”_

Tony glanced down at the cursed papers spread out over the table. “Definitely not.”

_“Okay, awesome... that’s awesome.”_ There was a rustling sound and a small grunt from Peter before he continued. _“I actually have two favors to ask, if that’s okay?”_

Tony’s lips curled into a smile at Peter’s endless politeness. “Depends on what they are, but sure, that’s okay.”

_“Okay, well first I was wondering if you could call the police and report a few drug dealers that are webbed up here?” _

Tony’s smile faded into a confused frown. “And why can’t you do that yourself?”

_“Well, I’m pretty sure I’m going to pass out soon.”_

Tony’s heart dropped and he looked over at Pepper to see her eyebrows pulled together in concern. “Why’re you going to pass out? What happened?”

_“That would be the second favor. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sending out one of those suits to help me? If there’s one available. Do you actually have more than one or is it just your actual suit and you’re sometimes not in it?”_

“Peter-“

_“The thing is, there’s a knife stuck in my back and I can’t reach it... I would take it out if I could, which, I know you’re going to say that you’re not supposed to do that-”_

“Jesus,” Tony muttered under his breath as Peter continued to babble. 

“Go,” Pepper whispered to him, but he was already moving, bolting for the nearest balcony. 

_“-and I heal fast but I can’t heal at all while the blade is still in there. I’m pretty sure I felt it scrape against a rib on its way in? Or some sort of bone back there.”_

One of the floor to ceiling windows slid open for him and the Ironman suit formed around his limbs as he leapt off the balcony into the fresh night air. Friday automatically pulled up Peter’s location and vitals as soon as his visor display lit up. Sure enough, it showed a puncture wound between Peter’s shoulder blades. He was losing blood quickly, blood pressure too low and heart rate too high.

_“One of the guys I webbed was making fun of me so I climbed up a fire escape and I’m on the roof. That was uh... not fun. Not a fun climb. You don’t realize how many back muscles you use until there’s a blade in them. But anywa-“_

“Wait, one of the guys made fun of you for getting stabbed?” 

_“Yeah. He’s just mad he got caught. Still though, way to kick a guy while he’s down.”_ There was a shifting noise, like fingers on concrete. Then Peter sucked in a sharp breath and held it for a few seconds before exhaling and continuing as though nothing had happened. _“I told him that at least I wasn’t the one trying to sell drugs right near a -"_

“Peter, focus on me for a second, okay? How long ago were you stabbed?”

The boy was quiet for a few moments before giving long, tired sigh. _“I dunno, like... I dunno,”_ he drawled, seemingly unconcerned by his own condition. _“Tell you what though, Mr. Stark, I’m lasting a lot longer than I thought I would. I probably could have called the police myself before calling you after all. But Karen said I should call you right away.”_

“Karen was right,” Tony replied immediately, pushing his thrusters to their top speed. “Always listen to Karen.”

_“I dunno, man, she still offers to go into instant kill mode every other fight. Though at this point I think she only does it ‘cause she thinks it’s funny. Hey Karen... can you maybe turn the heater on? It’s kinda... cold out.”_

It wasn’t cold. That was blood loss. 

“Hey Pete, are you laying on your side?”

_“Mm hm.”_

“Okay, I want you to roll onto your stomach. That might slow the bleeding a little bit.”

His answer was a rustle of movement and a low groan. Then a grumbled, _“...s’less comfortable.”_

“Okay, well... put up with it for now.”

_“So, could you... um...”_

He waited for several seconds in tense silence. “Can I what?”

_“Send a uh... a suit? Sorry...”_

“I’m already on my way. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

All he heard in response was slow breathing. 

“Kid? No sleeping allowed, keep talking.”

Nothing. 

“Peter! Stay awake, bud. Can you hear me?”

He received a long moan that might have been an affirmative answer. 

“Don’t fall asleep, Peter. How about you answer some questions for me, okay?”

_“Mm.”_

“How many guys were there?”

_“...thr -...uh, four. Mr. Stark?”_

“Yeah?” 

_“This really hurts.”_ His voice broke at the end, sounding every bit as young as his meager fifteen years. _“I think ’m colder than ’m s’posed to be.”_

Dread sat heavy in Tony’s gut. “You’re gonna be okay, kid. I’m almost there.”

_“Never been stabbed before. Not sure I like it.”_

“Is there any blood coming out of your mouth?”

_“Mm... dunno, hang on.”_ He heard Peter pull his mask off. When he spoke again he sounded slightly farther away. _“Whole suit is red, hard to see blood...”_ He spit on the floor. _“‘s dark here... don’t think there’s blood though.”_

“Okay, that’s a good thing.”

_“Ew... now there’s spit under me.”_

Tony chuckled, a slight release of tension now that he had Peter talking again, but the anxiety pressing into his chest returned seconds later. 

_“Hey... police’re here. You call th’police?”_

Tony took a few seconds to listen through his connection with Peter and sure enough heard the faint whine of sirens. “That wasn’t me, no. Someone walking by must’ve called them.” His focus had been Peter and only Peter. The assholes who stabbed him could stay webbed to the wall all night for all he cared. 

_“Oh... no, no,”_ Peter mumbled, voice going high in alarm. _“They just told the cops they saw me go up the fire escape. I didn’t think about that.”_

City lights appeared on the horizon, a glimmering gold mass that started to separate into individual buildings as he raced closer. 

_“They’re talking about me, Mr. Stark! They know I’m hurt, what if they come up here?”_

“Peter, just stay-“

But the stubborn kid was already grunting in effort and breathing heavily as he tried to crawl away. 

“Peter, stop! Lay back down!” Tony watched helplessly as Peter’s vitals trailed lower and lower. 

_“No... They said they’re going to see if I’m still up here! I don’t want them to find out who I am! They don’t like vigilantes!”_ Peter’s voice bordered on panic. Tony wanted him to stay alert, but not like this. This was having the opposite effect. 

“Peter you need to lay back down right now, do you hear me?” Busy city streets spread out underneath him as he zipped between skyscrapers, eyes trained on the little red blinking Peter-dot on his map. 

_“No, no, no,”_ Peter said breathlessly._ “Oh my God, not good. I’m gonna pass out and they’re coming up. Okay, well, being Spider-Man has been nice. Bye.”_

“Kid, do _not_ pass out!”

He heard a rushed exhale accompanied by a soft thump. 

“Peter!”

Red and blue blinking lights came into view, illuminating the sides of a few buildings where police cars were parked at the end of an alley. There, on an adjacent rooftop he could make out three people. A small, curly-haired, unconscious body, and two policemen slowly approaching him from the opposite side. 

He blasted his thrusters. He couldn’t go any faster than he already was but it made a lot of noise, and it had the desired effect. The policemen paused their advance to look up, first in alarm, then suspicion, then confused relief as he slammed into the roof between them and Peter. 

“Thanks, boys, I’ll take it from here,” he announced, turning quickly toward Peter and blocking their view. The view itself being something that was very literally straight out of Tony’s nightmares. Peter, in a puddle of blood that trailed several feet where he had tried to drag himself to a hiding place, with the handle of a knife protruding from his back. One hand was crumpled under him, the other clutching his mask tightly. His young face was ashen and sweaty, breaths coming too fast and too shallow. 

“Is he going to be okay?” One of the policemen spoke up behind him in worry as Tony very carefully gathered Peter up into his arms, doing everything he could to avoid jostling the knife despite his shaky hands. 

“I’ll make sure he is.” He started up his repulsors but then paused, hovering, when the policeman called out again. 

“Wait! Thank him for us, will you? We’ve been trying to bring those guys down for months, they’re responsible for six deaths. That kid just saved future lives, no doubt about it. We owe him.”

Tony gave them a quick nod and took to the air, setting his speed as high as he dared and holding Peter tightly against his chest. He tried to talk to him a couple times to see if he could wake him, but Peter stayed limp and quiet. Two things Peter Parker should never be unless he was asleep safely in his own bed. 

Very often Tony enjoyed the relative silence of flight in the suit. It could be peaceful, meditative even, to be alone and encased in his protective shell high above the earth and all the noise and irritations that came with it. But right now he couldn’t stand the silence. It was as though he was trapped in suspended animation, land passing too slowly below him and Peter bleeding out in his arms. Silence meant that there were no nurses rushing over to him, no doctors calling out their lifesaving gibberish. 

“Oh, shit. Hey Fri? Call the Medbay and let them know what’s happened. God, I should’ve done that already. Tell the docs that-“

“Boss, might I suggest reading the text Ms. Potts sent you a few minutes ago?”

Only then did he see the small notification in the corner of his display next to Pepper’s face. “Oh, look at that.”

_[Medbay ready for you. Docs are tracking his vitals. Keep your current speed and he’ll get here in plenty of time. Don’t drop him.]_

Tony gave a short, huffed laugh and adjusted his grip on Peter, pulling his small form that much closer.

“Friday, be a doll and tell Pep that I love her.”

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are loved and treasured! <3


End file.
